JERUSALEM — Israel closed its Taba border crossing to the Sinai peninsula Monday after warnings by its antiterrorism office of an imminent militant attack there. It also urged its citizens to leave Egypt hours before the start of the Passover holiday, when Sinai is a popular destination for Israelis.

Soon after the announcement, sirens wailed in parts of southern Israel, alerting residents to a rocket attack.They are so playing their own population with the yo-yo yanking of fear.

The military said a rocket fired from Sinai exploded in southern Israel, hitting a greenhouse but causing no injuries.

The border closure comes a day after militants in Egypt bombed two churches, killing dozens of Christian worshipers during Palm Sunday ceremonies.

In the wake of those attacks, Israel’s antiterrorism office called on all Israeli tourists in Sinai to return home immediately and asked Israelis planning trips to the Sinai to cancel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement Monday sending Israel’s condolences to the families of those who were murdered in yesterday’s terrorist attacks in Egypt and wishing a quick and full recovery to the wounded.He's impossible!

The Israeli government said intelligence information shows increased activity by Islamic State militants in Sinai. It adds that with the Islamic State losing ground in Iraq and Syria, there is renewed motivation to carry out terror attacks in different arenas at this time.

Israel called on its citizens to leave Egypt on the eve of the Passover holiday that commemorates the biblical story of the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt.

Israel on Monday also closed off access to the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank, a routine security measure for the weeklong holiday.Aaaaaaah! Needed an excuse to do that.

The festival is widely celebrated in Israel even among otherwise nonreligious Jews. Southern Sinai, with its pristine beaches and Red Sea coral reefs, has traditionally been a popular Israeli tourist destination — especially for secular Israelis during the Passover holiday.

Israel mostly shuts down after sundown for the holiday, as families and friends gather for Seder, the ritual multicourse meal at which the story of the exodus from Egypt is discussed in detail so that the tradition is preserved throughout the generations.Uh-huh.

"Tillerson says US will punish ‘crimes against the innocents’ anywhere" by Gardiner Harris New York Times April 10, 2017

LUCCA, Italy — The declaration was among the first efforts by a top official to describe what seems to be a new Trump administration doctrine that encompasses instinctual and emotional responses to catastrophic world events.Oh, NO! We are all in DEEP DOO-DOO NOW!

Tillerson’s statement also seemed bound to intensify a growing rift between the Trump administration and Russia, where Tillerson is headed Tuesday to confront Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, over the countries’ differences in Syria.Who shits on the doorstep of the house they are visiting?

There had been some hope that Tillerson would meet President Vladimir Putin. But Russia announced Monday that Putin would be unavailable — more signs of the Kremlin’s growing displeasure.

Hopes in Russia for an enduring thaw in relations between the two countries, fed by Trump’s oddly positive comments about Putin during the campaign, have largely ended.

European countries, which had been deeply uneasy with the Trump administration’s more transactional approach to foreign policy and its potential willingness to forgive Putin’s annexation of Crimea and continued meddling in Ukraine, welcomed the strike on Syria and Tillerson’s reference to humanitarian issues in guiding strategy.He didn't annex Crimea and 'twas the EU and US that meddled!

“There is overwhelming support in what the US did,” Britain’s foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, said Monday, “signaling that we will not tolerate the barbaric use of chemical weapons.”Unless they use it themselves.

Foreign ministers from France and Italy have made similar remarks in recent days, with Angelino Alfano of Italy saying that last week’s US military strike contributed to a “renewed harmony” between the United States and Europe.

The pictures of women and children gasping for breath and foaming at the mouth as they fought the effects of the brutal nerve agent affected Trump deeply, leading him to order US warships to fire 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian air base from which US military officials believe the chemical attack originated.

To emphasize the shift from Trump’s focus on economic nationalism to a foreign policy at least partly defined by humanitarian values, Tillerson belatedly decided to add to his itinerary in Italy a visit to the memorial at Sant’Anna di Stazzema, a village near Lucca where 560 villagers, including children, were massacred by Nazis during World War II.

After the blaring of trumpets and the laying of a wreath at the memorial, Tillerson approached a small news media contingent to make a three-sentence declaration whose second sentence was: “We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world.”How many bombs and missiles did his boss order be dropped today?

One possible reason for Tillerson's increasing confidence is the rising influence within the White House of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, whom Tillerson has taken pains to charm....

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